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Friday, March 25, 2016

Hey, Kat Sheridan here, stealing Sia’s blog for the day.
Well, not really “stealing”. It’s for a good

cause.

Regular readers of Over Coffee know the reason the blog is a
bit dusty and cob-webby right now is because Sia McKye is dealing with breast
cancer and the kill-you-to-cure-you nastiness of chemotherapy. That stuff will
knock the pins out from under even the strongest person (and Sia is one of the
strongest, most unrelentingly optimistic people I know!)

Cancer treatments have a lot of nasty side effects. And one
of the nastiest is the over-the-moon high costs of treatment. Sia has shared
some numbers with me, and I’m pretty sure we could get a beach house on Waikiki
and a couple of zippy convertibles for what this costs. Sia has great
insurance, but it doesn’t pay for everything. She has one more chemo treatment
to go. A month of radiation (one a day, 5 days a week, for a month). A year of Herceptin
(every three weeks until November). Here’s what she told me about her share so far: “I could build a finished
(electricity & insulated) attached two bay garage and a new barn with my share.”

In spite of all this, Sia continues to read and post reviews
on Facebook when she’s feeling well enough (and sometimes when she’s not). Sia
has been a good friend to authors and bloggers from the very beginning,
generous with reviews and space here on her blog. She’s paid it forward.

Now it’s time for us to pay it back.

Mutual good friend and angel-in-disguise Wendy Christy
started a GoFundMe account for Sia. Yes, I’m hitting you up for something, but
not necessarily money (although money would be AWESOME!) Here’s the link to Sia’s
account: https://www.gofundme.com/ddnxhu8k
. As you can see, she has a long way to go to make the goal.

We ALL want Sia well and back to her sassy self, right here
on this blog. Here are some ways you can help (and most of them are free!)

Donate to her GoFundMe account. It doesn’t have to be a lot.
The price of a cup of coffee. Maybe a day or a week’s profit from a book Sia
featured on her blog for you. Don’t let the bigger donations already there
intimidate you. $5 counts as much as $500.

I know many of you are bloggers with popular blogs. If you
have the time, space, or inclination, please mention this GoFundMe on your own blogs.
Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, wherever you hang out in the cyberworld.

This one is the most important: In the comments below, offer
an encouraging word to Sia. Tell her how she made a difference to you. She’s
having a super rough time right now. And while you’re at it, offer a kind word
to her husband, Dan, and her son, Jake, who have been awesome, amazing
caretakers. I think the most comments she’s had on a blog post is around 70. Can
we top that?

BONUS BONUS BONUS

Some of you know I write back cover copy/product descriptions for authors at my web site, BlurbCopy (http://blurbcopy.com/) From now until April 30th, 2016, if you sign up for a blurb and mention Sia in the Additional Info section of the work order, I'll give you a $5 discount (normally $35, so it will only be $30) ANDI'll make a $5 donation to the GoFundMe account.Work orders must be submitted by no later than April 30th.